Patrick Mahomes Leads Whitehouse to Win; No. 14 Lindale Girls Stay Perfect in 16-4A

WHITEHOUSE -- The Whitehouse Wildcats used a strong start and even stronger finish to knock off a resilient Lindale squad, 63-54, in District 16-4A play at Wildcat Arena on Friday.

Whitehouse (18-6, 2-1) scored 22 points in the first and started the fourth with a 15-3 run to pull away from the pesky Eagles.

Patrick Mahomes dominated, scoring a game-high 27 points, including 13 in the first quarter, pulling down 13 rebounds and adding five steals.

"(Mahomes) can just do so many things," said Whitehouse coach Ryan Tomlin. "He can shoot the ball, great on the offensive boards, hands are amazing on defense, so quick back off the floor to get his own misses, he's just so long."

Teammate Jake Parker added nine points, to go with four assists and five rebounds. Jaylon Dews and Spencer Shaw combined for 16 points and six boards.

Lindale's (9-12, 0-3) junior point guard Mason Terry led the Eagles with 20 points and four rebounds. Court Brown and Brian Boaz combined for 15 points and six boards.

Whitehouse led off the third with a Justin Dunning left-handed finish at the hoop, followed by a Dews triple. Then, Terry and the Eagles made it a game.

Terry started with a layup, followed by a Brown mid-range jumper, narrowing the margin to 10, 43-33. Terry scored the next two buckets, both on strong moves to the bucket. After Parker's floater from the base line, Terry drained a long range three-pointer to end the third. Lindale dwindled the Wildcats' advantage to five, 47-42.

"I didn't really say a whole lot, honestly," Tomlin said. "(Whitehouse) themselves said 'this is a bunch of bull, we need to play.' They told me I didn't have to say anything. So I didn't."

Whitehouse backed it up as it began the fourth, starting the aforementioned 15-3 run. Mahomes grabbed a rebound, and delivered a touch pass to Parker for the layup. After Shaw drew a charge on the defensive end, he had a putback off an offensive rebound, pushing it to 51-42. Dews found Parker for the assist and trey, as the Whitehouse outside shooting started to break down the Lindale zone defense.

Mahomes then had a pull up three-pointer from the top of the key, and finished with a offensive board and tip-in virtually sealing the Wildcats' victory.

"Lindale plays a totally different game than the other teams in our district," Tomlin said. "So I told our guys that you've got to be in 100 percent attack mode, and that's what we did."

Whitehouse's rebounding advantage was a key to the win. The Wildcats outrebounded Lindale, 36-17, including 15 offensive rebounds, seven in the first quarter.

Whitehouse travels to Nacogdoches on Tuesday, while Lindale hosts Corsicana as the first round of district play winds down.

No.14 Lindale Too Much for Whitehouse, Stays Perfect in District

Without starting power forward Zhanelle Geathers, who is recovering from having her wisdom teeth removed, the Lindale Lady Eagles used balanced scoring to defeat Whitehouse, 38-31, and stay unbeaten in district play.

Lindale (21-4, 5-0), ranked No. 14 by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, had a combined 24 points and 14 rebounds from Hannah Malone, Neeley Doss, and Makenna Allen. Natasha Malone added five points, 10 rebounds and a game-high six blocked shots.

Whitehouse (12-9, 2-3) was led by Ashton Ates, who scored 12 points and pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds. Kenslie Dews chipped in nine points, which included a 5-for-6 performance from the charity stripe. Brooke Stewart tallied six boards, while Morgan Tauscher added three steals.

Lindale scored 23 points between the second and third quarters to pull away from the LadyCats. After an Allen offensive rebound and putback, Doss sank a triple from well beyond the three-point line to push the Lady Eagles lead to 16 at the 3:52 mark of the third quarter.

Dews had a nice dish to Tauscher for a jumper in the lane, followed by a Ates' offensive board and layup, getting the Lady Wildcats within five, 36-31, with 52 seconds remaining, but that's as close as Whitehouse could get.

Lindale hosts Corsicana on Tuesday, while Whitehouse travels to Nacogdoches as district play continues.